Wife Attack

Trump spokeswoman: There was no attack on Heidi Cruz

By Nick Gass

Donald Trump's national spokeswoman strongly contested on Tuesday the notion that Trump's retweet of a side-by-side image of his wife Melania and Heidi Cruz constituted an attack on the wife of the Texas senator.

“No, I don’t think that’s an attack. That is not an attack, no. It is supporting his wife," Katrina Pierson said during a heated interview with CNN's Don Lemon on "New Day."

Pierson repeatedly defended the image, which included the text, "the images are worth a thousand words," and included an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz alongside a glamorous shot of Melania Trump.

“Well, of course not. Mr. Trump didn’t make the picture. He retweeted a tweet because he said his wife is beautiful just the way that she is," Pierson said. "And since when did it become OK to attack a woman? What is the policy here? Is it OK to attack a woman, malign her character, impugn her dignity just because she’s beautiful?”

The retweet came after the Manhattan real-estate mogul threatened to "spill the beans" about Cruz's wife in retaliation for an image being circulated by an anti-Trump super PAC that included an image of Melania Trump posing nude for GQ. Trump has maintained that Cruz knew about the ad. The feud further escalated on Friday when Cruz accused Trump of being behind a National Enquirer article that alleged Cruz had five extramarital affairs — a charge Cruz strongly denied.

During the interview on Tuesday, Lemon asked Pierson if the Trump campaign thought it was fair game to malign Heidi Cruz.

“No one has maligned Heidi Cruz. No one has attacked Heidi Cruz. Melania Trump has been attacked," Pierson claimed. "Where has that headline been on CNN? I bet CNN viewers didn’t even know Melania Trump had been attacked for months by pro-Ted Cruz people. That’s the problem here.”

Lemon defended the network's coverage, remarking that Pierson was being "disingenuous" about her criticism. “We have been talking about that for months, Katrina. I think you’re being very disingenuous about this," Lemon responded.

Pierson replied, “It’s not disingenuous because the headlines for a week have been about Heidi Cruz … You’ve been talking about it, but in the wrong context.”